At UC San Diego, instruction librarians and the Muir College Writing Program (MCWP) director collaborated to redesign the one-shot library workshops provided to the college’s first-year students enrolled in a research class. Following their discussion about student knowledge gaps about conducting research, the library instruction coordinator suggested flipping the workshop so that, prior to coming to the library, students would complete an interactive online tutorial.
The new flipped library workshops now consist of two sequential parts—an online interactive tutorial and an in-person workshop. Librarians created an online tutorial on database searching, made up of multimedia and active learning experiences for students to complete before the library workshop.
After learning online about the research process, database search strategies, and full-text access, students find and annotate three scholarly articles. They then bring their source(s) to the in-person library workshop. During the workshop, librarians guide students through a topic mapping exercise, an open-ended research question exercise, and an introduction to the BEAM method to describe how their chosen source addressed their research question.
Employing the flipped model provides benefits to both sides of this partnership. Librarians can see how well students implement the skills taught in the tutorial, while helping students begin to use their sources for the next phase of their research and writing process. This, in turn, alleviates part the instructors’ workload and fills an unmet need for the writing program. Students have responded positively to the two-pronged approach and are better prepared to succeed in their writing classes
